GRP-045 Contradictions in the Interpretation of Drug/Supplement Interactions and Difficulties of Their Management in Everyday
Clinical Practise

Abstract

Background The growing use of supplementary products (herbal remedies, food supplements, etc.) poses an unignorable and poorly explored
risk to hospital patients. The results of our previous study [1] show that 85.5% of hospital patients took at least one supplementary
product; and with one patient out of four we have identified potential interactions. However, several questions arise about
their clinical relevance: (1) Might the interaction harm the patient? (2) Is treatment modification or close monitoring necessary?
(3) Is it reasonable to prohibit the use of any supplement?

Purpose To explore and study those determinants that need to be taken into account when managing drug/supplement interactions.

Materials and Methods Taking the results of our previous study as a basis we have systematically evaluated the literature and the available authentic
databases.

Results There are significant differences between the databases we have looked at, as to which interactions are present in the system,
and how broad a spectrum of active ingredients is included when a known case of interaction occurs.

We identified the following factors, which have to be taken into account when evaluating a potential interaction: